I'm "slow" at Wanikani, and I'm ok with it :D

I’m similar to you, I’m at level 40 now but I started 5 years ago and I’ve been in Japan for most of that time. I spent nearly a year on level 15 during my first year on JET becaues I was focusing on immersion and survival in Japan. I picked WaniKani back up when the pandemic started and have been chugging along since.

I passed N3 in 2019 and N2 in 2021, and I took N1 last month. I’m always a little surprised seeing people on levels even higher than me considering if they should sign up for N4 or N3, but I suppose they’ve dedicated more time to kanji and less to other things like grammar and listening. That’s a personal choice, but it’s going to be difficult to integrate your skills later if you don’t improve them all along the way. If you actually want to use Japanese in a way other than grinding WaniKani, then reading texts, speaking, listening, and writing are necessary and will reinforce your kanji knowledge along the way, so you don’t forget after “burning”. Since I live in Japan I see kanji every day, I read the news in Japanese, etc. In my textbooks, on the news, and in life I learn new kanji that haven’t come up with WaniKani yet, and that makes them easier to learn when they eventually come up. All the study methods reinforce each other.

I wish I had time to grind more on WaniKani and get my averages below 30 days per level, but I’m far more interested in actually learning using Japanese and surviving here than getting to level 60. Also, I have a full-time job. But I do want to get there by the end of the year. If not? Next year, then :slight_smile:

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Nothing bad about going slow, really. Especially if studying Japanese is just a hobby for you. I’ve never come across this with other languages, but I feel like the Japanese study community has a group of people with a very “elitist” (with lack of better terms) approach. It’s become so much about efficiency and how to speed-run the JLPT to N2 or 1, and I think part of it is because so much about this language has become quantifiable. You need to know rougly >2000 Kanji, 6000 words and this list of Grammar points to pass the N2, which people considered advanced or even fluent.
That leads people to get to these numbers as quickly as possible.

WK is the same int hat regard, as the gamification gives you the happy dopamine kick whenever you level up, and it feels so good to see how many Kanji and words you know in exact numbers.

I believe not relying on SRS like WK and Anki and instead doing more practical things you enjoy like reading or watching content in Japanese to be way more viable than sinking that time on catching up on reviews and lessons.

I’m more on the speedrunning side myself tho, but that’s because I’m a 4th year Japanese studies major, was slacking during lockdown and found out way too late about WK haha. Now i’m playing catch-up :smiley:

Anyway, enjoy your time studying, however long it takes. Really no point in rushing it but bragging rights in the end haha. We’ll all get to the same goal eventually, so make it enjoyable for youtself on the way.

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Same here. Kanji is daunting to try learning because there’s just so many of them. I figured I’d make do with knowing kana and just give up, as I didn’t see myself continously study Japanese in my spare time. WK proved me completely wrong, I’m happy to say.

I’m doing WK a second time now to allow kanji and readings to sink even deeper into my memory. I think it helps that I’m now also reading regularly, which I didn’t do before.

the downside of doing WK fast and furious is that you don’t have much energy to put into other stuff, I felt. How big a problem them is for your learning depends on how much studying you’ve done before starting WK. In my case, I had over 10 years of immersion learning, so not doing much but WK worked out fine. Then I returned to immersion after.

But, for people who are new to the language, to Japanese grammar and who don’t really know any vocab outside of WK, then just doing WK won’t be enough. Then you defo have to pace yourself and take things slower as well, or you’ll just get overwhelmed by all the new information.

But, if you have years of vocab you’ve already learnt, then doing them on WK isn’t all that much effort - yes, you didn’t know which kanji to use or how to read them before, but you essentially already knew the words and kana-spelling, so to speak. Vocab lessons are quickly dealt with and there’s mosty the kanji to worry about.

I think that’s the biggest difference between speed runners and users taking it slow - we all have different backgrounds in learning Japanese and so, for some it’s perfectly fine to do 7 days per level, especially in the first 20 or so levels. For others, that’s totally overwhelming.

Just take things at your own pace and listen to yourself, figuring out which study pace suits your study habits and needs and I think one shouldn’t end up burnt.

Good luck everyone! :durtle:

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Still on level one after 4 or 5 years.

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I joined in October 2021. Currently at level 9. Took a few vacations left and right. Going at my own pace. I do feel sometimes bad that after such a period I’m just at level 9. But oh well…
I started Japanese courses back in September 2022. I’m really about learning the language. I see stuff at school (vocab mainly) that I had already seen in Wanikani and vice versa.
I study Japanese because I’m actually interested in the language. I like languages in general. Thought Japanese would be a nice challenge.
The kanji is, but the grammar isn’t. Turkish is one of my native languages, and Japanese grammar/word order is quite similar. I know I’m still 一年生, but so far so good.

There really is just no rush. It’s not that I have a due date to learn the language. And I’m also planning on knowing how to speak japanese for the rest of my life, not forget after a while. Sooo going a slow but steady pace seems a lot more reasonable for me.

Take your time and try to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. That would be my advice :slight_smile:

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Same as me. Since English is not my first language, Wanikani is like a dual study. lol

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Same :slight_smile:
I do like 5 lessons a day if I’m below 50 Apprentice items and reviews 3 times a day. That’s not that much but WaniKani is not my only resource for learning Japanese. For me it is important to learn how to understand and speak the language. Learning Kanji is very cool and helps a lot when it comes to new vocab but its just one part of my studies. I have a book and try to learn the vocabulary that comes with it and of course the grammar. Sometimes I have 20 new words per day in my Anki alone (including simple stuff like months, counters and so on) and that is my main focus.
I have a full-time job, kids and a house to manage so my time to study is limited. No need to let Japanese become a stressful part of my life. Aaaand English is not my first language, too. So, sometimes I remember the meaning in my own language but neither the Japanese reading nor the English vocabulary but I REALLY want to know them ALL :laughing:

And yeah, it helps to have the upgrade to lifetime. I can easily study 5 years and don’t have to worry about deadlines.

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At first, early levels I mean, I was rushing a little bit since I wanted more vocab for immersion.

But since lvl 35 I slowed wk a little bit because I wanted to spend 40min daily watching something with JP subtitles (anime is being my primary choice) and since the 40’s started, I am taking 35 days for lvl up,

maybe slow now for me , but I have to practice what I learned here somewhere,

I believe we start realizing that WK will not be with us forever and we need to take our own route.

2 years now into WK and I spend no more than 45min a day here.

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I’m taking it slow too! I do 10 lessons a day, prioritizing vocab first and kanji last so I won’t level up with tons of vocab in a pile. It’s agonizing at times but my last go round on WK I tried for 15-20 a day and that was waaaay too much. So onward i trudge :slight_smile:
I just reset to the beginning after having to take a year off. Initially joined 10 years ago. It’s been a journey!

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I’ve found that what matters is how you feel you’re taking things in. Going “slow” is clearly what works for you.

Really nice to have seen I’m not the only one taking things at a comfortable pace. Such a nice little thread.

Happy new year, hope 2023 brings you joy

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I took it slow as well, and never regretted it. Even though I was slow, I remained steady and never took a break or vacation through level 60. Now I’m at 9018 burns (only 69 items to go). I think it’s a good idea to always take reviews asap and regulate your speed by slowing down or speeding up on taking lessons.

This I wouldn’t worry about. At all. That’s the whole point of SRS. If you don’t learn it, you’ll see it for the rest of your life until you do (provided you have a lifetime membership).

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Same, joined the 31st of October 2021. Only level 9 (10). I’ve done reviews everyday since I started with a few exceptions and feel the same way. https://www.wanikani.com/users/AnimeDayTrader
I do plan on starting grammar now that most of the N5 kanji have been learned, so my pace for wanikani is going to get even slower lol.

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When I first started WK I would binge lessons and jump on reviews ASAP…which was seemingly working fine until I started working a full time job and couldn’t sustain that pace. I had reviews pile up more quickly than I could handle them and long story short, I ended up resetting. Now I’m sticking to a 20 lessons a day routine to make things more manageable. Not dumping all my time into WK also means I have more time and mental energy to put into grammar lessons and reading practice, which are things I simply need to fit into my studies if I hope to ever learn to read Japanese media.

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Im going slow too, I want to learn kanji alongside learning grammar and more vocab. So I use bunpro and Torii SRS, ill eventually get to level 60 but i’ll be in a much better position to actually use the language at that point than if I just rushed it. For context, I started november 2022 and im only level 6. but ive completed all n5 of bunpro and 2% of Torii’s 10,000 words challenge.

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I went through the levels as fast as I could. This led to me burning out once for 3 months of no WK at all and to some extent, even Japanese learning as a whole.

During my time away from studying, I realized how much I wanted to learn the language and it motivated me to keep going. I came back and grinded through the piles of reviews and lessons.

I am glad to have done it this way. It really brought me up to a good level of literacy and tested my commitment - for once, I had finally stuck with doing something. I found that recall accuracy didnt make any difference at all for me, because alongside WK I was always reading something whether it was a post on Quora, Twitter, news, or watching a video/series/movie.

I wouldn’t recommend what I did to other people, because it took away all my time, everyday, for the good part of a year and a half.

If you want to maintain a balanced life, while learning Japanese and not having to neglect other things you like doing, the slower route is the way to go.

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Yup. This exactly.

  1. Fast and achieve your goals. (GOOD!)
  2. Fast and fail. (BAD!)
  3. Slow and achieve your goals. (GOOD!)
  4. Slow and fail. (BAD!)

FWIW, I can’t decide if I’d have been more interested in going as fast as Vanlilla or even less when I was Vanilla’s age. :laughing:

I’d love to know the breakdown of the four categories. My guess: very small percentages in 1 and 3. Biggest percentage in 2.

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Or you can ignore a finish date, and just set a daily level of effort that’s comfortable for you. You’ll get there eventually, and more importantly, you’ll learn more every day.

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For me I had a goal for what I do during the day. My routine may change because I get super into a series or game. But I always try to plan for X amount of time for X skill (listening, reading, writing, speaking). This way I never fail, but I also have a more realistic idea of what I can do during the day.

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I am on WaniKani from May or June 2021, its been more than 1 and a half years and I’m lvl 23. I understand you totaly. At one point, after 1 year of WaniKani, I quit and for 1 or 2 months I didn’t learn any kanji and didn’t do any reviews because I thought its useless to just learn random words. People were asking me to say anything in Japanese and I couldn’t say shit, because I knew only some random words, I felt embarasing and that made me quit. But after that my friends encouraged me to continue, they convinced me that with time I will get better at Japanese and I started again. I had 950 reviews to do at that point and first thought was to just quit for good, but I decided that quiting is the easy way, so if I want to be like the anime characters that inspired me through the years to become a better person, then I need to squeez my teeth and start to do it. I started doing 100+ reviews per day and in about 2 weeks I was again at the 0 reviews mark :sunglasses: From that day I’m trying to keep the discipline, even if I have some days when I don’t find time to do my reviews, overall I’m still doing it. So don’t worry about going slow, as long as you will not quit you will get to lvl 60 brother :grin: Good luck to us all on this journey :blush:

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I joined the same day! Started with 10 lessons per day, now down to 8. And planning on getting slower, I burn fewer than 8 items per day. Wanikani says I’m on level 22, but I fail most of my burn reviews. I feel like a level 5, but slowly making progress! When I actually know most of these 22 levels reading will be much easier.

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